12 Habits of Healthy Relationships For Lasting Love & Happiness

Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.– Albert Camus

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. – Leo Buscaglia

Let’s go through the 12 habits of healthy relationships that have stood the test of time and how these precious gems can bring surprising results when put to practical use consistently. Most successful relationships share these traits as their foundation and reference points. Empirical evidence posits that putting these habits into practice increases the likelihood of us having healthy relationships.

This can be anything from dating, marriage and all the way down to your friends, co-workers and even your neighbors. The building blocks of healthy relationships have a broad spectrum of application and usefulness.

1. Communication

A lot of problems are caused solely because people do not know how to communicate appropriately and they feel. Identifying the problem pragmatically with proper communication skills is the foundation for a successful relationship.

I know a lot of people who are friends but don’t feel comfortable telling each other how they feel and because of that they have a very rocky relationship and there’s not much content, there’s little meat in the friendship.

Think of this weird analogy: If one of them got in a car accident the partner would show up in the hospital bed and ask the victim if there’s anything he can do without actually meaning it. Wouldn’t it be more soothing getting down to the task at hand and just doing something? This by no means undermines the importance of the partner’s presence in the hospital.

A lot of people struggle with forgiving someone, and though sometimes seem rationale, the burden of unforgiveness can also be overwhelming. To evaluate this point further, make a mistake on purpose and then ask for your partner’s forgiveness and afterwards determine the quality of the relationship.

I am not advocating anything outrageous, but as long as you understand that your friend, spouse or whoever you’re living with can forgive you, that’s a quality of a healthy relationship and you, in turn, should reciprocate when the time comes for you to forgive too. When you overlook, really mean it from the depth of your heart, say “I forgive you, I’m not going to do it again, I am sorry.”

3. Understand Your Partner

When you understand people and how they feel it becomes a lot easier to forgive them. Nevertheless, understanding can be very challenging at times, but you must have a big heart to have the openness and willingness to understand someone in their situation and the empathy to know how they feel. Appreciate their position that they may not have had the pedigree, but something slightly unfortunate happened.

That full grasp of their predicament will lead to forgiveness and over time by accommodating them; they will be more likely to understand you too.

The fourth relationship tip is to understand the five love languages; you’ll realize that loving someone and having a loving relationship isn’t something you can do passively.

It’s unlike passive income to which trickles into your bank account you don’t even have to think about it. A healthy relationship on the other hand, if you understand the five love languages, demands healthy dose of active commitment.

This means you have to go out of your way and actively love someone. Expect that this friend will feel more loved if I give them a gift every week and but this friend, on the other hand, may not feel the same way, at the same realm at that time, or even never at all.

But they will feel loved even more if I spend 30 minutes with them every day and practice the tenets of the five love languages: words of affirmation, service, gifts, quality time and physical touch.

We are all different and posses a mixture of these traits in a variety of ways. But what’s important is understanding yourself, your partner and the relationships that you have built. Use your connection as a platform to deconstruct the five love languages and find out what your priorities are; then you can start to have a better relationship regarding how you form your habits.

5. Respect

I’ve had some battles with this among some of my friends because they’ll go out and do things and it’s hard for me to respect them through their actions, but I can tell you what the friends that I do respect have. In a relationship, you should look up to one another with mutual respect.

Respect is one of the most vital foundations of the ABCs. A connection is a pattern of habits found in healthy and balanced relationships. You need to offer respect to get it, and it is something every person should have.

Individuals that appreciate each other trust and support each other and also value each other’s independence. They likewise have the liberty to be themselves, speak truthfully, efficiently, and also make concessions as well as choices with each other. They value set boundaries as well as urge social interactions with family and friends.

6. Appreciation

Appreciation can do anything and goes all the way back to the five love languages. Tell her; I appreciate you let’s spend 30 minutes together watching the sunset – I understand you I wrote you a little note when I thought of you, or here’s a small gift when I was on vacation. Appreciate the people in your life, and sometimes you can even verbally tell someone;” hey I appreciate that you’re in my life,” and that helps out a lot.

7. Us Versus The Problem

Healthy habit number seven teaches us to adopt a different approach to situations. It’s not me versus you, and I’m going to say that one more time. It’s not me versus you. Instead, it’s Us versus The Problem, so when you are confronted with life’s challenges sooner or later, deal with the problem head-on together but don’t butt heads. Don’t turn it into a war zone.

Unfortunately, the reverse is the case amongst most couple in this era, hence the high rate of divorce in the Western world. When conflicts arise, it’s common to see a couple starting to attack each other and swap each other’s qualities which degenerates into unbearable depths eventually because certain negative words penetrate deep into the soul like a sword.

It’s not that they’re not joining forces together to solve the problem, but a different attitude like saying “you know what, it’s not your fault it’s not my fault.
“It’s both of ours,” will introduce that much-desired trait of personal responsibility which fosters courage, growth, and resilience. These qualities are invaluable and will make any relationship stand the test of time.

What can we do to solve this problem? This type of viewpoint will solve so many relationship problems by just coming at it together as a team. Whether that’s a marriage team, or a dating team, or even you and your friend.

If we all can start looking at problems and bickerings as challenges we can solve together; we’ll have a lot more success in relationships.

8. Honesty

There have been times in our lives when we look back and felt short-circuited approaches provided the quickest route to the solution. Unfortunately, friendships and significant relationships built for the long haul need consistent doses of honesty without compromise. The key is, to be honest first without going through a bunch of loopholes and that friend will start to respect you more. This is one of the best relationship advice for a successful marriage.

9. Spend Quality Time Together

If you don’t feel comfortable being honest with a person there might be some psychological abuse or something else going on that is making that relationship unsteady and you probably want to get away from that. Spending quality time with our loved ones is something a lot of us guilty of in a fast-paced world, where everybody is in a hurry and in a world that just can’t stop talking.

Some sociologists have labelled it as the hasty pace that leads to nowhere. No matter our good intentions spending time together is what we all still grapple with and I think a lot of entrepreneurs might scuffle with this the most in relationships precisely because they love to work.

I’m almost like a workaholic, I love working at something about me specifically. It’s important for me not to spend my time doing meaningless endeavours so I approach my assignments with a business. I value my time highly enough and sometimes if I’m out with my spouse and we’re not having a great time, I quickly want to adjust the mood without being unnecessarily hard on myself though.

I occasionally feel guilty thinking time is being wasted, because I am tempted to think I could make five or ten thousand more dollars a month.
If I spent that time on my businesses, more returns on investment would be a better outcome. But I also look at the relationship side of it and I’m like you know, this relationship is an excellent thing in my life, if I didn’t have it I might not want to work as hard.

So that’s something that you have to strike a balance and you’ve got to be self-aware to understand what percent of your life should be devoted to work and what percent of your life you want to commit to family, friends, career and the entrepreneur part of that is where can you the next habit resonates.

10. Laugh A Lot

Of course, there are a ton of psychological benefits to laughing a lot, and if you can build a habit up to where when you spend time with someone and when you’re around them, you blossom with enthusiasm.

Sometimes, when I am in the midst of some people, I just feel more alive. More instructive is knowing that it’s not even me that has changed, it’s them.

It’s the people that I’m around that create the accommodating and receptive atmosphere of congeniality. They make me feel like it’s okay to laugh, it’s okay to be myself, and if you can surround yourself with people like that, the foundation for communal rapport builds and this engenders harmony to form in relationships.

11. Emotional bonding

Having an emotional bond between one another is an excellent way to build a connection and be able to trust, and care for each other. When you ask your partner how their day is, or if they are feeling okay that day, it lets the other person know that you care, and are taking an interest in what they have to say, which brings you closer together.

12. Making up after arguments

It’s important to make amends after an argument, no matter how small or big. Being stubborn and fighting with one another is what causes you to become distant, which could lead to a breakup. Talking to your partner about the fight, and how you two can resolve it, is a great communication form, and will only bring the two of you closer than ever. Do not take your partner for granted, letting your partner know how special they are, and how much they mean to you, can keep the relationship healthy.

Being there for them is a great way to show that you care. If a person is continually letting their partner pay for everything and pushing away what they have to say, it’s a sign that they’re taking that person for granted. Do you see a future with your partner? Maintaining the relationship and faith in one another, even in hard situations, is a big deal.

Are you able to always count on your partner? Planning your future together can be a joyous occasion, in which the two of you will forever share the bond that you have. If the two of you care about one another and see a future, do not let them go.

A relationship can be complicated at times, but we hope that these 12 tips can help you.